Tensions over Italy's attempts to avoid becoming the next victim of the
eurozone debt crisis exploded in parliament on Wednesday, with MPs
exchanging blows and insults over a pension reform plan.

The punch-up exposed the deep rifts within Italy over efforts to stimulate growth and tackle the country's €1.8 trillion (£1.56 trillion) public debt, as Silvio Berlusconi prepared to face a crucial European Union summit in Brussels.

The brawl broke out over sarcastic remarks made on television by Gianfranco Fini, the leader of the opposition Future and Liberty of Italy party, about the wife of Umberto Bossi, the leader of the devolutionist Northern League, whose support is crucial to the prime minister's political survival.

Mr Bossi has objected to plans to reform Italy's generous pension system, crippling the government's attempts to convince the EU that it is serious about embarking on serious structural reforms to kickstart the moribund economy.

In a television interview, Mr Fini claimed that Mr Bossi's opposition to a pensions overhaul was linked to the fact that his wife had retired on a generous state pension at the age of 39 from her job as a teacher.

Italy's complex and outdated pensions system allows some state employees to retire unusually early.

The remark sparked fisticuffs between MPs from the two opposing parties, with parliamentarians lunging for each other's throats as others rushed to intervene.

Parliament had to be suspended for several minutes as the fight was broken up, amid calls by Northern League MPs for Mr Fini's resignation. Mr Bossi said it was time for his rival to "leave the country".

The punch-up was an "unedifying spectacle" that brought shame on parliament, said Rosy Bindi, an MP with the opposition Democratic Party.

Pier Ferdinando Casini, the leader of a Catholic opposition party, the UDC, said that for MPs to get so worked up about a television interview at a time of such a serious economic crisis was "surreal".

Amedeo Ciccanti, an MP from the same party, said the scuffle reflected a "climate of violence and intolerance" in parliament.

The punch-up came as Mr Berlusconi travelled to Brussels to present a 15-page "letter of intent" outlining the reforms he plans to carry out to lift Italy out of the economic doldrums and further details of a €54bn euro austerity package announced in the summer.

Analysts said the proposals were unlikely to be concrete enough to satisfy eurozone leaders and the markets.

With the coalition in a state of almost permanent crisis and the 74-year-old prime minister assailed by sex scandals, corruption allegations and rebellion within his own ranks, even the Northern League has expressed doubts that it can stagger on until the end of its term in 2013.

James Walston, a professor of politics at the American University of Rome, said: "It is a zombie government, not clinically dead but close to being brain dead, lurching from one crisis to another."